Welcome to the Jungle Week 3 Recap

For the 3rd straight week, the Cincinnati Bengals suffer a hard loss. Nobody gave a chance to the Bengals, they were playing the Green Bay Packers in Green Bay, but they made it a close game. The Bengals, Packers game might have been one of the most intense games of the week.

If you don’t believe in miracles, you should now because the Bengals finally managed to get a touchdown. In Bill Lazor’s first drive as the new offensive coordinator, the offense drove down the field and Andy Dalton found AJ Green for a 10 yard touchdown. The offense looked a lot better and that is satisfying for Bengal fans. The Bengals have a lot of weapons but couldn’t seem to use them.

The pass game was much better for the Bengals than the past 2 weeks, but still not great. Dalton went 21/27 for 212 yards and 2 touchdowns. Dalton in the second half missed some big throws that could have changed the game. In weeks 1 and 2, you could make the excuse for him that there was bad play calling and bad blocking, and though blocking wasn’t the best against the Packers the play calling was much better. If Dalton misses big throws against the Cleveland Browns, people will be calling for AJ McCarron to start.

AJ Green had a great day. He had 10 catches for 111 yards and a touchdown. Bengals couldn’t figure out how to use the superstar receiver week 1 & 2, but under Bill Lazors offense it looks like they figured it out. Something concerning with the receiving game is the other targets. Running back Joe Mixon was 2nd for the Bengals in receiving yards and tied for 2nd with catches with 3 catches for 39 yards. This has partly to do with the play of other targets such as Tyler Boyd and Brandon LaFell, some of it has to do with injuries to John Ross and Tyler Eifert, and also has to do with Dalton eyeing Green. Throughout Dalton’s career, he’s had a knack of eyeing Green, and if the Bengals offense wants to succeed, Dalton cannot do this. Although in his defense, Other targets were not getting open throughout the game. When Ross and Eifert return, the Bengals will hopefully use more targets.

Something that was unclear the 1st two weeks was who was the main running back for the Bengals. After Sunday, it’s clear Joe Mixon is the man. Mixon had 18 Carries, while Jeremy Hill had 7 carries and Giovani Bernard had only 3. Mixon had just over 100 purpose yards, 62 rushing and 39 receiving. The lack of carries made Jeremy Hill so upset about the lack of carries he wants to be traded. This wouldn’t be a bad idea, as the Bengals desperately need a lineman, they could get a good one if they trade Hill. However with the Bengals history, they probably won’t trade him and they’ll let him walk in free agency.

Joe Mixon's stat line doesn't jump off the page, but as this chart shows, he has the look of a bell cow. pic.twitter.com/Wbup0NvhtX

You can’t put this loss on the Bengals defense. They played great. The defense had 6 sacks, and cornerback William Jackson had a pick-six, and that was only Aaron Rogers 2nd career pick six. Veteran cornerbacks Adam Jones and Dre Kirkpatrick struggled. With William Jackson playing so good, you can expect to see more of him. Darqueze Dennard also played really well. He led the team with 10 tackles, a lot of them was him coming up and stoping the short pass. Carl Lawson broke out with 2.5 sacks. He should have had 3.5 but a sack was called back after the Bengals had to many people on the field. Ty Montgomery was shut down from the Bengals defense. The Bengals defense will only get better as start linebacker Vontaze Burfict will make his return week 4 against the Cleveland Browns.

That is the second pick 6 Aaron Rodgers has ever thrown. William Jackson III making Bengals coaches look good working him in.

Although week 3 was a heart breaking loss for the Bengals, there is a lot of positive stuff the Bengals can take away. The Bengals should get the win week 4, but you never know it a rivalry game. The Battle of Ohio will be a good matchup.